Prison Worker May Have Been Romantically Involved With Both Murderers Before Allegedly Helping Them Escape

Joyce Mitchell, a tailor shop instructor at Clinton Correctional Facility, was investigated for a sexual incident with David Sweat before she allegedly helped he and Richard Matt break out of the maximum-security prison, NBC Connecticut reports.

Convicted murderers Sweat and Matt are still on the lam while a massive manhunt has been underway since their escape 10 days ago. More than 800 officers will search the area near the prison, which is 20 miles from the Canadian border.

Mitchell is accused of giving the men hacksaws, drill bits and tools to help them escape. According to NBC Connecticut, she planned to be the getaway driver, but never picked them up at the prison’s power plant. She instead checked herself into the hospital for anxiety and was later arrested on Friday.

After being investigated for sexual misconduct with Sweat, she was later wooed by Matt and said she “thought it was love” and decided to help them men escape. District Attorney Andrew Wylie told NBC Connecticut that she didn’t go through with the plan because she was still in love with her husband.

Authorities believe the men used the tools stored by prison contractors to cut through the backs of their adjacent cells, making sure to return the tools each night. NBC Connecticut reports that the convicts cut through the brick, then into a steam pipe which they wormed through to get to the outside from a manhole.

They even left taunting Post-It notes throughout their escape route. However, investigators say them men are probably still near the prison since they probably didn’t have an alternate plan once Mitchell backed out, and since no vehicles in the area have been reported stolen.

Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence for killing a sheriff’s deputy, while Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for kidnapping, torturing and dismembering his former boss, according to NBC Connecticut. The news outlet also reports that Matt was convicted of stabbing a man to death and had escaped from prison in 1986.

These man are considered to be extremely dangerous.